


Protector

by Leni



Series: A New Life [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-09 01:56:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13471263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: Bae wasn’t sure how he’d ended up in charge of his baby brother in the middle of a battleground.(Artwork by @nropay)





	Protector

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NropaY_OneEye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NropaY_OneEye/gifts).



> @nropay asked. Bae & Gideon + ‘Back off or you will regret this.’

Bae wasn’t sure how he’d ended up in charge of his baby brother in the middle of a battleground. Emma’s mom had been supposed to scoop up Gideon and retreat immediately under cover of her husband’s swordplay - a safe enough job for a woman in the early stages of pregnancy who refused to stay behind.

That plan had been shot to smithereens the moment they stepped into Zelena’s property line. Once the glamour had broken and revealed the small army of winged monkeys, it had taken all of Emma’s and Regina’s power to cut through them to get to the actual site of the spell, while Emma’s parents (and Bae, though he’d originally balked at harming the transformed townspeople) protected the pair.

The slow trek to the barn would be revisited in his nightmares, Bae knew, with the stink of fur and blood and the shrill yelps of pain that drilled through to his brain. He had almost been glad, when Zelena made her appearance.

Her, he had no qualms in cutting down.

The presence of the Wicked Witch had shifted the fight from a melee to a magical duel. The monkeys still hovered in place, keeping their group corralled within the barn, but they heeded their mistress’s order and didn’t interfere beyond their gatekeeping duty. It explained a lot about the Wicked Witch, that she let go of her advantage in numbers just to gloat that she would vanquish her sister - and the Savior - on her own.

The rush of having Regina in her sights must have gotten to her head. In her distraction, Zelena had forgotten to set her minions to guard the ingredients of her spell. Perhaps she thought that she must be their only priority - a mistake of which Bae had been happy to take advantage.

Nothing had impeded his retrieval of the squalling newborn that was his brother, as technically it didn’t involve an attempt to break out.

“Hello there,” Bae had muttered, wondering whether he would ever meet a new member of his family in a normal way.

The screech that had followed made him cringe, curling protectively around the small bundle cradled in his arm, but the witch’s attack never hit him. Emma’s grunt, as well as her parents’ chorus of her name, let him know that she’d deflected Zelena’s magic with her own.

Nobody stopped the woman herself, and from one moment to the next, Bae found himself facing the Wicked Witch.

“Excuse me,” Zelena said, her voice saccharine and her eyes mocking as she pointed at Gideon. “I’m not through with that.”

Bae grit his teeth through the onslaught of magic that washed over him, hardly daring to breath when it passed. He almost laughed when he realized that her deal with his father still held. He’d doubted it, after his brother’s abduction, but this explained why Zelena hadn’t come to the hospital in person. “Low battery, perhaps?” he taunted.

The witch’s eyes rounded comically when she realized her quandary, and still she tried another spell.

It was as useless.

Bae secured his one-armed grasp on Gideon, while his other hand raised his sword and kept it aimed at her chest. In a fight where one of them couldn’t be hurt by the other, he figured, the winner was clear. “Back off or you will regret this,” he said.

Zelena laughed with the typical disdain magic users held for human weapons. “I can leave you for last,” she sneered, waving a hand that created a barrier that quickly surrounded Bae without touching him. “Now be a good boy and wait for your turn, hm?”

He was helpless as he watched her round on her heel to return her attention to Regina and the others.

Not for the first time, Bae wished they had the Dark One on their corner today.

If his father were here, this would be already over. Most probably, Zelena would never have been allowed to come this far; people who as much as thought of harming Rumpelstiltskin’s child didn’t have a long life expectancy. If Regina meant to keep her sister behind bars, she’d need to do some fast talking when the Jolly Roger - and Bae’s father in it - returned to Storybrooke.

Provided they could defeat the witch today.

If not…

He wasn’t sure how much could change, with Zelena being raised by her mother, but knowing the spiteful woman, he knew that she wouldn’t stop until everyone who had fought against her suffered for it.

There would be no deal not to harm Rumpelstiltskin’s family.

“It’s okay,” he told Gideon nonetheless, focusing all the faith he’d had in his father as a child and trying to pass it on to his baby brother. “Even if we lose here, Papa will find a way to us again.”

  
The End  
23/01/18

 

Fanart by @nropay

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is love!


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